Streams of light whizzed upwards, blossoming into magic circles in the sky, looking like a fireworks display of sorts. Sound effects of the spells wove in with the music. That was the direction of the goat’s hut if I wasn’t mistaken.

How dare they celebrate, whatever it was, without me? Herald Stone was the mandated center of every festivity!

Should I go there and assert dominance? Players around me also stopped to gaze at the lit sky, muttering amongst themselves. They were probably thinking the same thing.

Going to the goat’s hut. Not asserting dominance. Or maybe that too, who knows? I wasn’t a mind reader.

A few trotted towards the house of the village goat. As the partying continued, more players followed.

I couldn’t believe I was considering this, but some dancing could perk me up from my sleepiness. I had been awake for the past… I think around thirty-two hours already.

Stayed up all night leeching from Paritor, then leveled on my own until I reached level twenty-nine, and browsed the auction house until Jimmy messaged me that he was on his way. After assisting Mum and Sawyer in moving into our old house that was now new, I had Jimmy hurriedly drive me back to Grand Scaup’s so I could dive back into MCO.

“I should’ve slept at least a couple of hours before playing,” I muttered, massaging my head around the base of my horns as if it’d help. The giddiness to discover more information from Gula momentarily suppressed my sleepiness earlier.

And now, it was back. Dammit.

It wasn’t actual sleepiness—players couldn’t feel fatigue, hunger, the physical travails of humanity while in the game. More like nodding off, as if I was a potato computer threatening to shut down. The AU-VR manual did advise that users should be well-rested when using it for the best experience. Nonetheless, the unit did have a built-in failsafe to forcefully turn off and let the user go to sleep if certain thresholds were reached.

What if I danced for a few minutes?

Embarrassing? It shouldn’t be. I’m Herald Stone! I could do anything and it’d be the people watching who’d be embarrassed to laugh at me. Many people saw me dancing last time and they loved it. Anyway, it’d be more embarrassing if I suddenly disappeared while with my party later, especially in the middle of a boss fight or something. Not to mention rude.

“No, not dancing with the goat. That’s stupid.” I shook my head to think clearly. “I should find Elder Pabilsag’s workshop-cave instead.”

Discovering hidden Ocadules or clues about Bawu would jog me properly awake. Just the thought of surprising finds was already having an effect. It wasn’t like I had exciting secrets to discover from the goat.

Just the dancing and the music—

“The music!” I exclaimed, my mind lighting bright like a beacon.

“Music sounds da best, eh, ‘erald?” Berennor, a returning veteran player I barely knew, surprised me from behind. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that he was with his party. He placed his arm around my pauldrons and bumped our horns. “Da soul feeds on music, ya hear me?”

“Yeah… I hear you very well,” I said with a friendly smile. He was half-yelling to my ear. “The music too. My soul is feeding on it just fine.”

“Attaboy, Blighted boy!” He let me go, but not before slapping my back and booming a laugh.

“Are you coming to the village goat, Herald?” asked Jazzinta, one of Berennor’s partymates and probably wife in real life. I couldn’t recall what they told me. “I heard some streamer started a party there. If I’m not wrong, he’s celebrating because he found some secret item or whatnot.”

“Looks and sounds fun, eh?” Berennor invitingly elbowed me.

“Going to be more fun if I’m there,” I said. My joke earned a few chuckles. Good enough. Herald Stone, the Crowd Player, had to play to the crowd. “But I’ll have to check something first…” My fingers flew on a floating screen, searching if there was a record of the hidden achievements I’d found. “I’ll follow in a minute.”

“Ya do that, okay?” said Berennor. And they galloped away.

Here it is! I silently jabbed my fist into the air in triumph.

[ Hidden Achievement: One Against the Royal Army]
Eliminate five hundred Feral Frost Macaques and a
Frost King Macaque on your own.

I had eliminated the endlessly spawning Feral Frost Macaques in the thousands, easily meeting the first requirement severalfold. As for their King, I had no clue what triggered it to appear. Perhaps if a player were solo, it’d be brave enough to show its royal fur? It wasn’t difficult killing the Frost King Macaque; its pesky Freezing skill was the only challenge.

Different from other hidden achievements I had obtained, the reward for this one was information, not items.

Yusa told me about the history of the goats on this mountain and their music magic. All the musical goats have perished bar one, probably in the Great Quake or something. That surviving one was making me dance. Yusa went on that the Kurghal village goat, while teaching her how to make [Peely Fruit Wine], also told her about its misadventures in the Golden Forest. One time, it was attacked by the Feral Frost Macaques and almost got killed by their King. It stopped venturing deep into the Golden Forest to gather fruits alone since then. Yusa surmised the goat would be pleased that I killed its nemesis.

I didn’t follow up on this route because I visited Gula in prison right after leaving Yusa’s house. My mind was wrapped up in all the Blighted business and gathering a full party for the Great Hunt. The business with the village goat didn’t seem significant in comparison.

“Music magic?” I started to trot with the fireworks as my bearing. “Would that be powerful?”

That was a dumb question someone thinking inside a box would come up with. Ask not if an item is powerful; ask what you can do to be powerful with any item.

My Akhos Ocadule wasn’t powerful or particularly good for tanking, but I was making my own brand of tank—the Plaguetank. Debuffs indirectly aided not only my but also my teammates’ survival. And it didn’t stop there. Debuffs directly made me tanky too. Not many builds could boast of that. And I could boast of my unboxlike thinking.

Was music magic the next puzzle piece of my build? I could feel in my unboxlike balls something here was for me.

Around forty or so players gathered in a half circle around the goat’s hut. The goat was right outside its house’s open doorway, playing several instruments simultaneously with magic that gave it speed, making it seemingly multiply as it zoomed around. In front of the goat, a level eleven player was dancing while playing an instrument.

“Eugenius,” I read the player's name with the long flute. “Sounds familiar.”

Spokeless Rado, one of the new Mardukryon players I helped to show the community how much of an upstanding member I was, had mentioned this guy. Eugenius was an MCO streamer who switched races to Mardukryon after the Blighted world quest started, most likely to make content on the latest trending race, inspiring Spokeless to follow suit.

Other than the goat, only Eugenius was playing a musical instrument. The other players were clanging their armor and shields or casting spells like buffs and healing to make noise. We couldn’t use offensive spells in the village. It all sounded pretty good, surprisingly. As I continued to listen, I realized that the goat’s music bent all the other noises in line with its melody, like auto-tuning.

An amber glow coated Eugenius as he performed. Concentric circles with squiggly child-like scrawls rotated on the ground beneath his hooves—music magic, obviously.

But what wasn’t so obvious was its effect. Might be an AoE buff, some sort of aura that wasn’t passive, needing the music to be continuously played. A channeling skill, I surmised. If so, it didn’t sound as good as a regular aura that only needed reservation.

Good or not, Eugenius captured everyone’s attention.

“This should be me,” I muttered, eyeing the crowd cheering for him.

I neared the ring of players, stalking the perimeter of the group to eavesdrop. From what I could gather, Eugenius seemed to have found a quest to get music magic from the goat.

“This guy’s amazing,” a player with a surfboard-sized boomerang strapped to his back said to his friend. “He’s barely a week here and he already discovered musical instruments? Didn’t know we had those. I thought we’d have to wait until we got off blasted this mountain to find performer Ocadules and instruments and that stuff.”

“Same, same,” his friend replied. “Haven’t heard of any player with music magic ‘round here before. Hey, you reckon there are also dancing magic for Mardukryons like the fire belly dancers of Dragon Island?”

“Probs, man. Since there’s this—musical instruments and whatnot—I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other performer Ocadules too. Awesome that Eugenius found it. As expected of a veteran MCO streamer.”

This really is supposed to be me! I seethed in my head. The crowd should be showing their admiration to me, Herald Stone!

I was willing to bet my left testicle that Eugenius only thought to search for a musical instrument quest because of my dancing accompanied by the goat playing music—either he saw it or heard it from others. Many people were surprised the goat had musical instruments that time. If only I had returned here sooner…

Petty Herald Stone, reporting for duty. I made my way to the village goat.

No one paid attention to me. My name had little sway since the world quest ended.

Up to this day, I had no idea why the goat asked me to dance to progress a quest. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Was it because I hid in its hut while running away from Yusa’s suitors? So many things happened to get Arakmad’s laundry that it could be any of them—so many stupid things.

Or not so stupid, because it led me to this route. What was stupid was letting some random guy steal my limelight.

I talked to the goat, narrating how I killed the Frost King Macaque. The goat ‘replied’ how happy it was. It wasn’t actually talking but instead projected thoughts in my head as it bleated and made other goat sounds. Somehow, I could understand it with its telepathic communication power.

As it communicated with me, the goat stopped playing music. With its magic gone, the sounds became uncontrolled, devolving from music into noise. This was the time the crowd turned their attention to me as they stopped their banging and clanging. Eugenius was still playing his flute, oblivious to what was going on behind him.

“You’re giving me a reward?” I said.

The village goat happily bleated.

[ Received: Lowan Oud {3}, Ocadule Skill Shard: Carhoni’s Chorus ]

Lowan Oud {3}| Item Level: 27
Epic | Melee | One-Handed
  45-88 Attack Power (Earth)
  1.2 Attacks per Second
  10% Maximum Health when playing a Song
  5% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction when playing a Song
  Requires: 55 Might, 65 Vigor, 75 Spirit
--------------------
  +43 Spirit

Lvl. 1 Carhoni’s Chorus: (Channeling Song Skill) Play the song of ancient protection rolling from verdant hills of yore for 45 seconds. Grant a barrier of your own (Vigor + Spirit) to you and each of your allies within the song’s range. The barrier is refreshed every 40 seconds of staying inside the song’s range. Uses 4 Energy per second; must have a Musical Instrument equipped.
  Cost: 30 Energy
  Cooldown: 50 Seconds

Without a second thought, I slotted the Ocadule Shard of [Carhoni’s Chorus] into the [Lowan Oud], a guitar-looking instrument with way too many strings and a large, pear-shaped body. Then I unequipped my [Reinforced Pavise], switching in the [Lowan Oud].

Eugenius lowered his flute, finally realizing his show was over. As he turned around to follow the gaze of the crowd, I strummed the strings of my instrument, casting [Carhoni’s Chorus].